UAE: Man sues wife for more than Dh141,000 after wife refuses to pay her share of joint home loan – News

The case was initially dismissed by the court of first instance, but the husband appealed against the verdict and the woman was ordered to pay him compensation

A husband in Abu Dhabi is suing his wife for failing to pay a bank loan they had taken together to build a commercial villa.

The Emirati man demanded that his wife pay him Dh141,780 plus legal interest.

He explained in the lawsuit that he and his wife were both given a residential land and they decided to get a Dh2 million housing loan from the bank to build a villa on the land. They all have to pay monthly installments of Dh4,170 to the bank. The husband said he was the guarantor for the loan.

The man said that until the date of filing the lawsuit, he paid the bank installments separately every month. He said his wife, who was also a home loan recipient, had not promised to repay her share of the loan and refused to repay when he asked for it. He then decided to take her to court.

The woman lodged a memorandum with the court showing she co-owns the land with her husband and together they secured a bank loan on which they built four villas.

However, she noted that her husband, the complainant, rented out the villa after it was completed and charged the rent separately. Therefore, he is not entitled to require her to pay her share of the loan used to build the property.

She asked the court to dismiss the case for lack of justification.

A report by a court-appointed accounting expert showed that the couple had only paid Dh500,000 to the bank on a home loan worth Dh2 million. The remaining loan balance is AED 1.5 million. The report also revealed that since the first installment, only the husband has paid by check.

The Abu Dhabi Family and Civil Administration Court of First Instance had earlier ruled to dismiss the case.

The husband challenged it to the Civil Appeal Court, which reversed the decision of the first instance court and ordered the woman to pay her husband Dh141,780 for not making monthly payments to the bank.

In his ruling, the judge said that there was sufficient evidence to prove that the husband and wife jointly obtained a bank loan and should jointly repay the loan to the bank.

The woman will pay her husband’s legal fees.